Almost Redemption
by pbfn242751
Summary: Rachel Cranston is in danger and comes to NCIS for help. Ziva will learn who she is, and how will Tony and Gibbs handle her return? How would they deal with it if something bad happens to her, too?
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: This is my first Fanfiction story ever. I got the idea for it months ago but I didn't want to start it until I had watched 'A Man Walks Into a Bar...' again, so after I finally got NCIS Season 8 on DVD, I watched it right away and started this. My goal is to post a chapter a day, but we'll see how that goes. Anyways, hope you enjoy, and please review! :)**

"Hi." The entire Team Gibbs looked towards where the voice had come from, and immediately recognized who it was.

"Rachel. What brings you here?" Gibbs asked Dr. Rachel Cranston, who before had come to NCIS before to do psychological evaluations on the team. She was Kate Todd's sister, but only Tony and Gibbs knew that, and what she was really looking to find at NCIS was closure; she thought she could find it through getting to know the people Kate was closest to when she died. But that had been a long time ago, and all of the agents were wondering what she was doing back at NCIS.

Rachel looked around at Tony, Ziva, McGee, and back to Gibbs before answering. "My car blew up this morning. I was at the Wal-Mart, about thirty minutes ago, and as I was walking back towards it after shopping, when I was about twenty feet away, it just blew up. I'm okay, but I'm not entirely sure it was an accident."

"Doesn't sound like one at all." Gibbs replied. "McGee, get the security tapes from the store. Metro Police went to the scene, right?"

"Yeah." Rachel replied.

"Rachel, you're going to need to stay here until we figure this out." Gibbs ordered.

"Wait, what do you think happened?" Rachel asked.

"Someone wants you dead." Gibbs said bluntly.

"Why?"

"That's what we're going to find out." With that, Gibbs headed up to the Director's office, apparently with some sort of idea about what was going on.

"Why would someone want me dead?" Rachel questioned again, turning to Tony.

"I don't know. But we'll find out, I promise you." He responded.

"Do you think it has something to do with…"

"I hope not." Tony interrupted. "God, I hope not." Ziva looked at Tony and then at Rachel, wondering what Rachel had been about to say that made Tony respond the way he did.

Right then, Tony's desk phone rang, and he answered it with his standard greeting of "Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo" that made Ziva roll her eyes every time. "Okay, boss." He said to Gibbs, before turning to Rachel.

"Gibbs says him and Vance need you in Vance's office." Tony told her.

"Okay." She said before going up the stairs and into the director's office.

"Tony, what do you hope it doesn't have to do with?" Ziva asked, curious.

"I'm going to get coffee." Tony replied before heading towards the elevator, leaving Ziva confused and even worried about DiNozzo avoiding her simple question.

"Do you know what Tony was talking about, McGee?" Ziva asked him.

"No idea." McGee responded honestly, just as clueless as Ziva. "But I'm sure he'll tell us eventually."

"Or we will just find out ourselves, since it seems important and Rachel thinks it might be the reason someone wants to kill her." Ziva said.

"Yeah, maybe." McGee said dismissively before getting back to his paperwork. But Ziva didn't let it go that easily.

She absolutely hated when he kept things from her. He had done so numerous times, but the one time that really made her resent it was Jeanne. She had been worried sick about him, since she had no clue what was really going on, and he never confirmed nor denied what she suspected for a long time. And when she found out the truth about it, she was hurt beyond belief, having been completely blindsided by the person she thought would tell her something that important. She understood it was the director's orders, but still…didn't she matter more than that? Ziva had moved past that, though, but now because of it, she was extremely wary every time her partner hid something from her.

And she didn't have a good feeling about it.

* * *

><p>Up in Director Vance's office, the mood was definitely not pleasant. Vance kept insisting that NCIS had no reason to be involved in the case since it was not in their jurisdiction at all, and Gibbs kept arguing that since it might have something to do with Kate they had a right to stay on the case, and neither one was about to budge. As for Rachel, she was kind of in shock and didn't really know what to say. She could hardly believe it was even happening.<p>

"It's not in our jurisdiction, Gibbs! I can't have you working this case! It's completely Metro's case, and that's all there is to it!" Vance yelled.

"Fine. I'll ask Metro to hand the case over to us. I'm sure they'd understand and be more than willing to help out if needed." Gibbs responded, since the Metro detective that had been put in charge of the case was an acquaintance and he knew the guy would not hesitant to give the case to Gibbs and his team.

"If they agree to it, go ahead." Vance said, knowing Gibbs would definitely end up getting the case because he always seemed to be able to get what he wanted, especially when it was something personal like he knew this was.

"Good." Gibbs then flung open the door to the director's office and left, wanting to get started on his investigation as soon as possible. Rachel followed him after being told by Director Vance that she would need to give a witness statement, and they both arrived back in the bullpen at almost the exact same time Tony did.

"Taking a break, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked him.

"Actually, I…" Tony started to come up with an excuse, but Gibbs quickly shut him up with a head slap before walking over to his desk and making a quick phone call to the Metro detective in charge, who, as expected, told Gibbs he could have the case and would send over the evidence shortly. Right after Gibbs hung up the phone, he got an email of the crime scene photos, and he instantly put them up on the screen.

A look of recognition appeared on Ziva's face at the very first one, which was a shot of the bomb underneath Rachel's car.

"What is it, Ziva?" Gibbs asked her.

"I recognize the bomb. It is a signature I know, let me think…Abdul Kahlil!" She exclaimed. "He was a wanted terrorist for over ten years in Pakistan, never found. I don't know why he would target Dr. Cranston, though." She told Gibbs. "I mean, there's no reason for any terrorist to be going after you, right?" Ziva asked, turning to Rachel.

"Well…" She started to tell Ziva the truth, but Gibbs broke in.

"There sort of is a reason, Ziva." He said. "She's Kate's sister."


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: So sorry for the super long wait! But, school started (ugh) and I've been super busy with that and field hockey, too. Special thanks goes to pirate-princess1, LoT56, and ForeignMusicLyrics for reviewing! They made my day! Anyways, I finally got this chapter finished, so here you go! And again, sorry about the lack of updating, I'm going to try to get the next chapter up much quicker! Enjoy, and reviews are awesome! :)**

Ziva's first reaction was shock. She was Caitlin Todd's sister? But after that, it was a fear of sorts. Ziva absolutely did not want to revisit that part of her life. She didn't want to think that Ari could have had something to do with this, or at least, his people did. She didn't want to think about Kate, the agent she had replaced being killed by her own brother, and she definitely didn't want everyone else thinking about it either. It wasn't that she didn't respect their sorrow, because she completely understood, she just didn't want anyone ever doubting her for a second just because Ari was her brother. And because she had tried to prove he was innocent. Ziva didn't like when her past came up in any way, shape, or form, but this was worse than everything else, because it had hurt the people she was now closest to.

"Are you serious?" McGee asked incredulously. He obviously hadn't known that Rachel was Kate's sister, either.

"Yeah." Gibbs replied as Rachel nodded.

"How did I not know?" He said, probably ashamed that he didn't figure it out when it was obvious that Gibbs and Tony both knew. "I mean really, how could I not…" Gibbs interrupted him with a head slap.

"We have work to do." He said. "McGee, did you get those tapes yet?"

"Uh…" McGee said, walking over to his desk to check his email. "Yes. I just got them." He put the tape from the morning up on the plasma and fast-forwarded it to around 10:00, when he figured the bomb had been planted under the car Rachel pointed out was hers. Sure enough, at 10:11, a guy who skillfully kept his face hidden from the camera approached Rachel's car and reached underneath it. He got into a black Ford pick-up truck and drove away, but the plate wasn't visible due to the angle the camera was at.

"Crap." Gibbs said. "That gives us nothing." Right then, his phone rang, and after he answered it and the person on the other line said something for all of three seconds, he hung up. "That was Abby. She's got something." So the team all scrambled for the elevator, leaving Rachel with not a clue of what to do.

"You coming?" Gibbs asked her with a smile, to which she replied by hurrying over and getting onto the elevator with the team.

* * *

><p>The second the team, and Rachel, arrived in Abby's lab she started telling them what she had discovered from the evidence she had processed so far; a few other things were still lying on the table in her lab.<p>

"I traced the bomb's signature to Abdul Kahlil. Wanted terrorist from Pakistan, and has been for over ten years." Abby said.

"Tell me something I don't know, Abs." Gibbs sighed, and Abby continued.

"Okay. He's been going back and forth between the US and Pakistan over the last seven years, and the FBI has been keeping tabs on him. They sent me the file, and there's something really hinky in it." Abby looked at Gibbs expectantly, almost as if she was waiting for him to ask. It was then that she noticed Dr. Cranston standing with Ziva, Tony, and McGee. "Dr. Cranston. Um, hi?"

"Hi, Miss Sciuto." Rachel replied, unsure of how exactly to respond to Abby's half-greeting, half-question. Abby looked at her inquisitively for a moment, thinking about asking her what she was doing here but not knowing how that action would be interpreted.

"Abby. What did you find?" Gibbs interrupted, diverting Abby's attention back to what she was going to say before seeing Rachel.

"Oh yeah. That. A picture, Gibbs. And I don't like it one bit." She said, shaking her head as she pulled up the picture on the computer.

It was of two guys sitting at an outside table at what seemed to be a café or restaurant type place. One of them was a guy with sort of long, medium brown hair, dark eyes, and a kind of dangerous look about him. And the other had short, dark hair, brown eyes, and was immediately recognized by everyone except Rachel.

"Ari." Gibbs said with maliciousness lacing his voice; he didn't want those memories to resurface. Neither did any of them.

"I don't know why this guy would be with him, though. I mean, I get it, they're terrorists, it's what they do, they kill people, or try to kill people…" Abby rambled on until Gibbs cut her off.

"Abby. We'll find him, okay? And then we'll find the rest of them." Gibbs knew that this was the truth. He would do anything to catch the guy now that he knew he was associated with the person who killed Kate.

"Who's Ari?" All eyes turned to Rachel when she asked the question. Everyone looked around at each other, silently debating who should answer her question. Finally, Tony did.

"The terrorist who murdered my old partner, your sister. He was killed years ago, but obviously all of his people weren't." Tony responded, and anyone could pick up on the seething anger in his voice.

"Oh my God." Rachel gasped, surprised and taken off guard. She hadn't really given what happened much thought, at least as far as the 'who did it and why' part was concerned. Yeah, having something to do with Kate had crossed her mind, but still…she supposes she should have completely seen it coming. Sure, many she pissed some people off just because the nature of her job as a psychologist, but certainly not enough for anyone to want to kill her. So it made perfect sense that this had to do with Kate. She certainly had much bigger enemies, like apparently some terrorists.

"It's okay. We'll get them." Tony tried to sound reassuring, but in truth, he wasn't very confident. Maybe they had killed Ari eventually, but they definitely hadn't stopped him before he did awful, irreversible damage to the team by killing Kate. But they knew what was coming, so perhaps they'd be better prepared this time and the terrorists wouldn't be able to get to Rachel. He knew that he would do anything in his power to stop that from happening.

"Thanks, Abs. Good work." Gibbs said to Abby before turning away and heading towards the door.

"Wait, there's more!" She called out, and he immediately turned around and walked back over to her, looking at her expectantly.

"Metro Police sent over their crime scene report, and they said there was a small amount of blood on the pavement about three feet away from Dr. Cranston's car that was extremely recent, like it had only been there for about two hours at the most, probably more like one. They ran a sample, and it was blood type B positive. We know for a fact that Abdul Kahlil's blood type is A negative." Abby informed the team.

"Not surprising. Terrorists like him would never carry out a small task like this." Ziva said.

"But he did." Abby countered. "They found a print close to where the bomb was placed on the car, and it was Kahlil's. Whose blood it is, I have no idea. But bring me some blood, and I'll be able to tell you if it's a match."

"Good work, Abs." Gibbs told her before turning and leading the rest of the team and Rachel out of Abby's lab, but before Rachel left, Abby stopped her.

"Dr. Cranston…" She began.

"Please, call me Rachel." Rachel interrupted.

"Okay, Rachel, why is a terrorist targeting you?" Abby asked bluntly, still not having a clue.

"You don't know?" She replied, obviously surprised.

"Should I?" Her answer confused Abby. Why should she know? They had only just started the case, and she had only met Rachel once before in her life.

"Well, I guess not, but I'm Kate's sister. Caitlin Todd? She worked for Gibbs?" Rachel responded.

"Yeah, I knew her. We were friends. Sort of best friends, even. Wow. I can't believe you're her sister. Sorry for your loss, I guess? I mean, it's been a while, but…"

"No, thanks, Abby. Believe me, I still miss her." Rachel cut in, reassuring Abby that what she said was the right thing to say.

"Me too." Abby replied, smiling at the memories of Kate that came into her head because of talking about her before remembering she had a job to do. A job that she now knew would be saving Kate's sister. "Sorry, Rachel, but I really have a lot of work to do." She gestured towards the evidence on the table.

"No, I understand. Please, do whatever you can to catch whoever's behind this. Before they get me."


End file.
